Have you ever read The Dresden Files, about a modern day wizard named Harry Dresden who lives in Chicago and solves supernatural crimes? Awesome books and a favorite character of mine. This is inspired by his world facts: wizard magic and modern day technology don't do so well together. Magic is much more advanced than tech:)
This is the chapter when the Dainsons explain some of their technology to the Company, which includes the cars, their camera, and Kyle's gameboy.
Tech and Magic Don't Mix
Kyle had repeated the hunting process with Kili and Fili, and then occasionally Dwalin. It went on for days, as they crossed through the Old Forest. Kyle, Maia, Bilbo, Ori, and Lori even had the privilege to sit by and watch the two young dwarves train with their weapons against Dwalin, watching wide-eyed swift and deadly they fought. Dwalin, as he expected, was as scary as heck, swinging his two axes in a way that made them practically twirl in his fingers.
Fili had twin swords that propelled and parried against Dwalin's axes, the blonde dwarf spinning, blocking, and dodging with sure footing, his normally cheerful face twisted into a blank and frighteningly focused look that made him seem unreadable and absolutely deadly. Watching him took Maia's breath away. It was surprising that there was not scratch on either dwarf's body, considering how realistic their fight looked.
When he was done, Fili winked at Maia, making her blush. Kyle saw the exchange and glared at him, but the dwarf turned away.
When Kili then jumped in, his own sword out, lighter and more lithe than most of the dwarves, he proved to be as swift and agile as his brother, though he showed more expression that made him look angry and determined. The effect, however, had usually gave Dwalin the advantage to read Kili like an open book and the elder warrior kept knocking the youth down from either under his feet or head over heels.
Dwalin kept pointing out to Kili that he was practically handing him an opening, causing Kili to growl irritably and his brother, the Dainsons, and Ori to laugh. Bilbo just smiled shyly, trying not to laugh for Kili's sake.
Dwalin grunted and then readied his axes when Kili got back to feet to ready his sword. "Again, lad," he said, and then added over to Kyle, "Oh, and Master Dainson! You best watch carefully, see how its truly done!" Kili gave Dwalin a shocked look, clearly not liking the idea of being used as an example, especially when he kept getting knocked over in front of them.
"Cool!" smiled Kyle, liking the idea that Dwalin may be considering to add him in the training exercises...if they offered him a sword first.
"Good grief!" muttered Maia, who was clearly nervous about the idea of her thirteen year-old brother fighting a fully grown and fully trained warrior.
Afterwards, while everyone took a breather from the training grounds, Maia, Kyle, and Lori had started describing to the dwarves some of their world. A few gathered around as Maia did most of the talking, while Kyle was playing his DS gameboy and Lori was coloring in Maia's sketchbook. They were talking about cars, and the way Maia described how much metal they were made of, running on gas and charge, along with glass windows and black rubber tires, there was not a single member of the company whose eyes weren't popping out of their skulls. To them, it must seem strange.
In the meantime, Maia had also shown them her digital Pixel camera, and asked Bilbo (who was already familiar with the device from their days in Bag End) to show the dwarves how it worked as they passed it around to look at the past photos through the slideshow that back for two years. Some were of the views of Texas and random animals from the wild, some of her friends, Lori's friends, and even Kyle's friends. Most of them were of her family.
As the dwarves were passing around the camera (Dwalin holding it at the tip of his fingers while eyeing it, Oin squinting at it, and then Nori finally grappling it for observation with Bifur, Bombur, and Dori looking over his shoulders in awe), Maia had already finished describing freeways and gas stations. "So, these 'cars' or 'trucks' that you drive," said Fili, slowly with a frown, trying to comprehend what they were explaining to him and the others. He exchanged an uncertain glance with Kili, and then both looked at Maia and Kyle sitting across from them on a log. "By their description, they sound...well..."
"Advanced!" finished Kili, but not without a little awe.
"Dangerous," added Ori nervously. "There is no horse, dogs, or cattle to pull them, is there?"
"Nope, they're completely mechanical," said Maia with a smirk. She dug into her purse and pulled out her truck keys, jingling them in view. "These are the keys to our truck. Without them, it can't start."
"Unless you hot-wire the car," said Kyle, not looking up as he played his gameboy. Kyle began to using the backup charger for his DS gameboy, having run out of charge a while ago.
Maia rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but it's kind of illegal. And even if it wasn't, not everyone can do it, Ky."
"Well, I'm gonna. Might be useful someday, not to mention awesome!"
"Fine, but don't come calling me to bail you out of jail when they catch you," retorted Maia, and Kyle made a face at her, while Dori called out, "Hear, hear!" Fili smiled, and Maia caught his eye, before looking away, trying not to smile or blush too hard. Lori's words nights ago still echoed in her mind like a song on repeat and the moment felt a little awkward.
Fili likes you, Maia. He likes you a lot...and I think you like him, too.
Feeling a little unsure, she started observing Fili at the corner of her eye while the blond dwarf started looking at the camera pictures with his brother and the others. She bit her lip. Yes, Fili was handsome, if people went for that sort of thing...which was a good sort of thing, for a dwarf...and he was kind, open-minded, friendly, smart, bad-ass when he fought, and it felt like she already knew him her whole and yet wanted to know more...She resisted the urge to smack herself upside in the head. No, no, no, NO! Stop it! Do not go there! It's only been a couple of days and you're starting to lose it! It's your hormones talking and nothing else! But is it? NO! Nuh-uh. Get a grip, Maia! Focus! Whatever you're feeling right now, it doesn't matter. We're still going home. Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa are waiting.
Maybe that was the problem. Whether or not her baby sister was right, Maia liked Fili. She liked him too much. More than she should. Surprisingly, more so than when she was attracted to Bryce. Though sitting still with these thoughts swirling wildly in her head, her skin burning and her heart racing every time she looked at him, she felt hopeless.
Fili is a friend, she kept telling herself. A really good friend, but still a friend.
"When are ya ever going to show us how that toy of yours works?" Bofur asked, sitting next to Kyle,
Kyle scoffed. "You're not gonna let this go, are you?" he said, as he was shaking his DS and patting its edges before continuing to play. Bofur shook his head with a goofy smile, his hat flopping. Kyle sighed dramatically and then scooted closer. "Okay. Fine, but I'm not gonna get into too much detail, because even I don't know." Frowning as his double screens started to go on haywire, he patted the gameboy against repeatedly his palm, while Bofur pointed out, "Is it supposed to be like that?"
"No," said Kyle with gritted teeth, still shaking his DS. "Geez, it's like the screen has going haywire, and I'm in the middle of a boss..." At that moment, Gandalf was walking back from looking ahead and began to sit down with the group.
"Nori, are you alright?" asked Ori with concern. When Maia turned back to look at the others, she saw the ginger-haired thief frowning slightly at the screen, tilting his head slightly. His expression was strange, and his face slightly paler as if he were trying to solve a word-cross puzzle from a newspaper.
"I..." Nori began, scratching the back of his neck. The thief shivered slightly. "I'm not quite sure, actually…Man's got an icy look about him, is all...He looks a lot like Master Kyle." Nori glanced at Maia, who shrugged in agreement.
"And Miss Maia looks like the woman," added Bombur. "So does little Miss Lori, with eyes and the curls."
Maia knew they were looking at a picture of her parents and felt her smile drop. Whatever the picture was, her parents had been present together, being husband and wife, mother and father. Dad was home and Mom was awake. Times had been better, when the family wasn't so broken now.
Not that she would tell them that, nor would Kyle or Lori. Not yet.
Thorin, who had been sitting at the far side of the crowd (to ignore the Dainsons conversation, most likely), watching carefully as he was sharpening his sword, came over and sat beside them. He held out a hand for the camera. "May I?" Nori nodded and handed it over.
Then not helping herself, she peeked over at Thorin...the uncle who gave her a nervous jolt with that intimidating glare of his...whom to her surprise was holding the camera at eye level with a thoughtful frown on his face. When he looked up, he turned the screen towards her. "Is this your mother and father?" Thorin questioned her.
Looking at the screen of her parents standing together in the middle of their horse farm (which had been still filled with horses at the time), Maia sighed and nodded. "Yeah."
"When was it?" said Thorin. It was a simple, curious question, but Maia was determined to have him like her a little more.
"About a year and a half ago. We owned a horse farm once," she told Thorin, and the others. Fili and Kili already knew this. When she met Fili's eyes, he nodded a little with a smile. Bilbo and Lori next to her were also looking with understanding. Looking at the screen, seeing both Laura and Arthur together made Maia sad. Laura's smile was blinding and carmel brown curls shining in wild ripples beneath her white cowboy hat; Arthur's smile was small and his dark hair was pulled back, but his icy blue eyes were twinkling with happiness. "Anyway, that was my mom and dad's anniversary. I took that picture before they went out riding. I remember Kyle, Lori, and I planning a surprise dinner when they got back, but it was really just a homemade pizza and a popped Sauvignon Blanc." Seeing the dwarves' blank faces on the last part, she smirked and said, "Wine."
"Ohhh," the dwarves nodded, most of them smiling at the thought of having a little alcohol for a change. Thorin raised an eyebrow at her, and then looked back at the camera...before frowning at it. "The picture is disappearing," he said.
"What?" Maia started and got up, taking the camera from Thorin. Rotating the camera in both hands, she frowned while watching the little screen haze and buzz, the picture of her parents dancing and flashing. Disturbed, she pressed OFF for the device with a beep before something would happen. "Weird," she muttered. "There should be plenty of battery charge on here..."
"Same problem here, sis," announced Kyle, who still shaking his DS irritably. He cursed as the screens started buzzing. "Come on!"
Gandalf, who was sitting right next, was smoking his pipe while watching the boy toss his game around. "It never helps to fix a device that way," he told the boy, spicy smoke coming out of his nose and mouth.
Kyle then paused. He looked at the wizard. Then back at the gameboy. Then back at Gandalf again. Then Kyle slowly started holding his DS toward the wizard.
The gameboy started buzzing louder than ever, the tech beneath its shiny, plastic surface starting to heat up rapidly...then the screens automatically blacked out.
"Holy crap!" Kyle jumped to his feet and faced the wizard, holding the DS out of reach now. "It's you! You're making our tech go nuts!"
"Hmm..." Gandalf smiled thoughtfully. "This is interesting, indeed. As you should know, Master Dainson, our world has none of your 'tech,' as others would indeed mistake them for magical artifacts. I wonder if there is something about my presence that doesn't bode well with your objects of desire."
"Your magic?" said Bilbo, while Lori gasped in fascination.
Gandalf poked his pipe in the hobbit's direction. "Precisely. I cannot take fault for what I am compared to what another object can do." He raised his bushy eyebrows at Kyle, who glared and crossed his arms. "I think it would be wise if you would play your...gameboy around me. At least until I have acquired more practice."
Kyle scoffed. "No kidding. I'll probably be lucky that I have any charge left." To test his theory, he turned the on and off switch of his DS. When it remained blank, he groaned loudly and threw it in the grass, "DANG IT!"
"So, I suppose yer not going to show us how your gameboy works?" said Bofur, sheepishly, while the other dwarves couldn't help but laugh and Kyle had to resist the urge to give them all the finger, his face red as a tomato. Even Thorin smiled a little, before rolling his eyes and stomping off.
"That's one way to get your head off the screen, little bro," teased Maia, while Kyle picked his game back up miserably. "So, tech and magic apparently don't mix! Who knew?"
"Oh, shut up," exclaimed Kyle, before pointing at Maia warningly, "and keep our camera away from Gandalf! Seriously!"
As he stomped off, Maia couldn't resist calling, "Hey, Sparks! Just wait a few more months and you can charge again!"
"Screw you!" Kyle called back, still marching away, and Maia laughed, while the other dwarves frowned at that apparently dirty remark.
It wasn't long until they started moving again.
Up next, I'll update a deleted scene with some growing romance between Maia and Fili. A personal request from the 100th reviewer, BloodyTink:) I was going to write it anyway, but still. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I'll update very soon! Review soon!